Monday, February 28, 2011

It Ain't a Leap Year. Darn, wanted to have another day in Italy.

Lame title. But its end of February and that's all i could think of.

Life is soooooooooo good.

February Summary:

AUTOGESTIONE
there was autogestione. i dont think i mentioned it before. but there was like 2 days the second week of february as i recall, where only students teach lessons. it kind of reminded me of school back in america, not that students teach the lessons. but because it was like a fun activity, everyone got to pick what subjects and classes they wanted to go to. just like in america.

Being the only exchange student at my school, i guess thats the reason i dont know. i was asked to teach a lesson on "Slang"
i didnt really feel like i could say no, i figured itd be kind of fun. But for like two weeks i flipped out, really nervous. im kind of a shy person when it comes to having to do soemthing in front of a group of people.

My friends and classmates were really supportive. They helped me, and they were all like excited to sign up for my lesson. I honestly hoped they were the only ones who would choose to sign up for my lesson, because im comfortable around them, and if there is like no one to talk i front of, im not scared.

I had friends come oveR(italian friends) to help me prepare. that sounds seriously retarded, but I had a list of slang words, then they helped me translate it. and make handouts for my lessons
We later found out that like 100 people igned up for it, and that it was full. 100 people is a lot. like, i got really scared. Anyways, we prepared the lesson. And two of my friends fabio and alice(who both speak english really well, and were the ones who helped me transalte) They were SOOOO nice. they made sure one of them was with me for my lesson the first day, and the other with me the second day. so i wouldnt have to be alone. they were both so helpful. so if you guys are reading this, GRAZIE MILLE!!! non potevo farlo senza voi!

The Slang lessons went fairly well, well the first one kind of sucked. There were WAY too many people in the first one, and they were a younger group so i think they were more shy to speak english since maybe they didnt know it as well. im not sure. but the second lesson with alice went much much better :)
and it did help to see some of my friends in my class

Autogestione was fun, well not like really fun actually, for me mostly stressful. but fun considering italian school standards. i hate school. i always have. but italy made me hate it more. just saying.. so basically when we all signed up for what classes we wanted to do, you have everyones name on the list of each class and you write down what clas syou want to do. im a special person.. and my name doesnt exist on the paper. you can look at it as a bad thing, and feel excluded, but i look at it like a magical thing. because since i change classes, i can kind of leave whenever i want, and no one knows where im supposed to be (which class) and like, heck, im not even sure if some teachers know my name. since its never written anywhere. no attendance for me :)
so yeah i got to go to whatever lesson i wanted during autogestione. even if it was "full" because i could just slip in and no one would know. id like to think im invisible and i can do whatever xD lol not really im not that retarded , but i really like that my name isnt on the attendance :)

I ended up following my friends from my main class around, going to lessons that they chose. and we did design and photography, then my lesson the first day. then the second day we did chinese(yeah, thats right, i already knew everything the dude was teaching) and mafia or something, wasnt really sure. then my lesson.
________________________________________________________________________________
hmmm what else?

in these past rough ten days or so snice i last updated, Things have gotten better. not that it was bad before, but like, things have gotten GOOOOOOODDD!!! :)
My friend Alice had her 18th BDAY PARTY two weekends ago. MASSIVE party! in italy, 18 is THE age to be. like, its when you can drive, drink, and youre a legal adult. like everything at once. but in america its sort of split, driving at age 16, then the adulthoodness at age 18, then drinking at age 21. i think thats kind of stupid,but ok. so yeah, anyways for us in america, its like, yeah big parties for each of those 3 massive years. but in italy, since its everything at once, its friggin massive!

btw. this was my first 18th birthday party in italy. i had been to birthday parties but not 18th birthday parties.

so for her birthday, there was a massive group of people, we all went to dinner together, and had pizza, and after we ALL went to the disco. discos are really common, normal and popular in italy. but the thing about italy, is that events start really late. and its normal to go home at like 4 i think. in america, as far as im concerned, or as far as i know, midnight or 1 is pretty late....
Ok so this is part of my class at dinner.(Alice's Bday)Not everyone is here, and this is only one of the tables at dinner. Im the only one with black hair on the right, turned around obviously because im retarded. But yeah.
but yeah, we danced the night awayy

during dinner i talked a lot more(all my classmates were there too, and others) like, people didnt know i could speak italian, but seriously guys, i can! I hadnt really seen most of my classmates outside of school(my main 4c class) and it was really kind of weird. thigns are different. but i think im making more friends now. Some of them told me they wanted to tal to me from the beginning, but didnt know how to. but now, they know i can speak italian, and we talk :) everything has gotten so magically better with this family. even though i didnt leave novara when i changed families, i didn t change schools, i kind of feel as if i did. Like, everything is so different now. and ive learned so much italian in just one month. in the household now we speak practically only italian all the time. and since ive been able to speak italian, i think im making more friends. and because of my new location, i live closer to my italian friends, so i can actually go out with them. and this family, they dont mind driving me. lately, everything is getting so much better,i know i keep saing that, but really.. Im always invited out now, and i can actually go! te family doesnt mind to drive me. idk its jut reallllyyy gooood. haha my family jokes about how i am too social and i have to choose because i cant do both things xD
anyways, alices birthday party was saturday night about two weeks ago

the following day, sunday. was my host sister VALE'S BDAY. 22.
I woke up "early" like at 10 or 11 to ATTEMPT to make pancakes for her. we had a brunch, an americanized meal! (aw its so cute im always cooking and stuff with this family)
anyways, my pancakes kind of, well acutally, really failled. but my family for some reason liked them. i told them no no, americans would not eat these they are so crappy. and they said since they had never had them before, they dont know how they are really supposed to be, so like this, they were good to them. its funny because they ate all of them.. wow O.0

Monday i went to milan and met with my host sister Vale, and we went to ALL TIME LOW concert together, which was really fun! i love them! but i felt bad because when we returned home she had to continue her project for school. :(

Alex Gaskarth lead vocalist




Me and Vale at the concert
throughout the week, i talked more with my classmates( i think) like, my class is special.. theyre really divided. theyre really groupy.. so i kind of talk to only some of them. and others we dont really even say ciao. and others only ciao. but now i talk with them much more, i think theyre happy they are now able to talk with me, and im really happy im finally learning the language already. jeez, after 5 months, c'mon!!
then this last weekend friday night i went to the movie theater with one of my host sisters and my host mom. we watched some new movie with ann hathaway in it. this is the first full movie ive seen in theaters with this family (as i recall, idk i forget a lot of things) and i actually understood almost all of it! in all italian baby! wooooooo!

 ROAD TRIP! AL MARE(Liguria):




Last saturday we went to liguria for the day. We got up early and drove down south. Only about an hour or two car ride. Its like going to canada! but it was crazy because liguria has mountains everywhere. you could be standing at one part and be at the beach, and look over and across the mountains and see the snow. Its crazy!
It was a really nice day, and my family took me
 around a bunch of places. it was sooo pretty!

My host sisters, my host mom and I at the beach
So pretty and colorful!
last saturday night there was another birthday party, a classmate had an 18th birthday party, the class threw her a surprise dinner which was really sweet. :)

sunday was carnivale of ghemme. it was mostly for little kids, running around throwing confetti everywhere, and dressed up in costumes(non c'e carnevale in america) it was really cute. my family said though that this year there really werent as many people like other years. oh well. btu yeah, in ghemme(which is where i now live) for carnival they have giant pots and cook a mixture of lots of beans and other stuff that im not really quite sure what, but everyone lines up to get some. i tried it, it was really gooood.

NOW. its monday. monday night. last day of february. its been short over a month with this new family. i think one week over a month. i speak and understand italian so much better now. Im really satisfied with everything. oh, except for the fact that im now fat.
i dont know, i look back and think about the times i wanted to go home, despite how much i hated the idea of returning back to stupid high school and everything. but now, im so abnormally happy, it isnt enough time. (hence the title of this post) i wish it was leap year, then id have at least one more day here in this beautiful country.

Italy really is the best country. im so in love. cobblestones, the history, the beautiful language. the way of life, people are laid back and just chill out. i love italy.

XOXO
Rachael

P.S. Mercoledi 2 di marzo, parto per sardegna. c'e una settimana di scambio, tutti i ragazzi di intercultura che fanno un anno in italia, vanno. ci sono tante settimane che possiamo scegliere, per esempio c'e un posto in udine, rieti, latina, parma, arezzo, livorno, bari, napoli, calabria, taranto, trani, siracusa, marsala, enne, cagliari, oristano etc. ci sono tanti!!
normalmente i ragazzi del sud vengono al nord, e noi del nord andiamo al sud. io ero in ritardo a scegliere la mia settimana di scambio, quindi c'era solo pochi posti. ma quasi tutti nel nord. non volevo andare in qualche parte nel nord, perche, vivo nel nord xD c'era solo un posto nel sud, oristano, sardegna. quindi ho scelto oristano, sardegna. mi piace questo programma tanto, un bel programma, ma non mi piace questa settimana(se non vado per questa settimana, non faccio la settimana di scambio. perche non voglio pagare o andare in un altro posto dove sono gia stata come roma o venezia o milano xD
cmq, non mi piace questa settimana perche, e la settimana di carnevale. volevo stare qui per carnevale, cosi potevo andare ad Ivrea con gli altri ragazzi di intercultura(non ho visto loro per 5 mesi...). ma nooo invece vado in sardegna. si belllooo, pero, ivrea ha un grande carnevale. sono un po triste perche non posso andare ad ivrea, anche a incontrare gli altri ragazzi, i miei amici. anche le mie sorelle vanno in una discoteca, una grande festa solo per carnevale! loro mi hanno invitato, anche abbiamo preparato i vestiti.. :\ ma vabbe. sardegna.bel posto, bel programma, ma non mi piace questa settimana. (le settimane dipende dove vai, la mia è la prima settimana.) il prossimo post metto le foto qui. di ivrea(che cosa avrei visto) e anche di oristano sardegna carnevale(che cosa vedrò). sto scrivendo questo adesso perche parto fra 2 giorni, anche in sardegna forse non ho internet. quindi, il prossimo post è quando torno.

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